AN UNACCEPTABLE DEATH

The death of her fiancé sends Munch Mancini (Unwilling Accomplice, 2004, etc.) into an emotional tailspin but cannot disrupt her moral compass.

No one knows better than Munch how deadly the drug scene can be. So when LAPD detective Rico Chacón, the man she’s finally ready to marry, goes undercover, she expects danger. But she doesn’t expect to see her friend Mace St. John at her door bringing word that Rico has been shot to death by his fellow officers. She expects even less to hear rumors that Rico was dirty, or news from his ex-wife Sylvia that the city was withholding benefits from his family. Putting aside the numbing misery of her loss, Munch calls Phil Bayless, the internal affairs officer investigating Rico’s shooting. A little later, a couple of uniforms interrupt Munch at lunch with Rico’s former partner, Art Becker, and whisk her off to Rico’s old precinct to meet Roger, a cop who knows too much about her personal life—particularly where it concerns her daughter Asia—for comfort. Still, Munch agrees to help Roger, and soon she’s taking her old pal Ellen to Rico’s wake, where they meet a thug named Humberto, second-in-command to Abel Delaguerra, a drug lord whose international dealings paved the path to Rico’s final journey.

Even her muddled plot can’t spoil Seranella’s searching account of a woman coping with the ultimate loss.